awayuq

small saga, beginning of part 3.

Part 3 will go on for a long time.

A week ago Joe Basic Quilting hoop arrived and I was eager to get started. I started near the center of the quilt, but not at the center, because I hoped my stitches would improve and I want the center to have good stitches, not first learning stitches. There is a lot of improvement to be had. Here's the first block I tried.

It looks almost ok from a distance, but take a look up close.

Sigh. In my handsewing, I strive for small stitches and even stitches. Two pieces of calico, no problem. Quilt sandwich? BIG problem. This first block took me hours! Between trying to get a reasonable motion, not catching enough fabric on the back of the quilt, getting used to a ridge on the top of my thimble, manouvering the whole hot quilt on my lap, and trying to stitch in four different directions...

At this point, I am thinking: I love patchwork, yes. The quilting part, not so much.

Maybe it's just practice? Here's another couple of blocks and sashings completed.

I changed the quilting pattern to crosshatching for a purely practical (or lazy) reason--I found it easier to quilt in open spaces away from seams. The extra thickness of the seams is farther away and it makes it more comfortable and easier (sometimes) to get small stitches. I like the texture, but the stitches are so uneven! They wiggle all over and they are all different lengths. I despair. You can see them clearly here

The small block is 2" square, so you can also see that they are not very small. Several things occur to me at this point.

1. Maybe it takes practice. After all I've only quilted a total of 5 or 6 squares. In my entire life. Instead of being frustrated, I can look on this as a learning experience and use this as a quilt to learn quilting. It is made of scraps. There is no need for spectacular stitching on my first quilt, even if it would be nice.

2. It is still better than trying to manipulate the whole blinking thing under the arm of my ordinary everyday dressmaking sewing machine with no walking foot.

3. Even uneven stitches work to hold the pieces together.

4. At least I am catching the back of the sandwich in too!

5. Process, not product.

6. I am good at lots of things in life. It's ok not to be good at handquilting. Besides, I might improve, back to #1.

7. It's all relative...

here is a picture of one of my favorite quilts. Maybe my all time very favorite.

It was on my bed when I was a child, and I loved tracing the circular designs and examining all the different prints. It is very worn in places

I would love to make a quilt similar to this one. It is a perfect complement to a summer bedroom, and I love the circles against squares effect, and the combination of a bunch of disparate prints. Also I love pink. This quilt has been with me for many years and I treasure it even though I don't know who made it or when or why. It works, and it cheers me up. I thought I might learn something from it, so I started to study the stitching.

Well. Those stitches aren't all that even. Here's a knot or two, right on the top

Clearly I love this quilt for its character, not its perfection. This doesn't mean I don't want to improve my quilting, but I feel a little bit of relief. Each time I pick up the needle and try again to make small, even quilting stitches I can feel my jaw tighten and my neck get strained. After studying my favorite old quilt I think--is it such a bad thing if there is a little bit of crookedness and a certain flexibility in the stich lengths? I want something functional and pretty. I don't need more pressure in my life. I'll continue to practice and if I survive this quilt, there will be another to improve on. Maybe someday...

or maybe not. I don't have to be good at everything. Or even anything!

Thank you everybody for your nice comments on the quilt top. I have been dipping into the world of quilt blogs and am utterly stupefied and awed by what is out there. Since picking up the hexes again it seems that I have run across hexes every which way, in all sorts of configurations. And so many other interesting things! My fabric lust quotient is way high right now.

Happy summer! oh and... that last bit of advice I reported in my previous post, about it being hot to quilt in summertime? Absolutely dead on correct. The back of my knees start to drip when the patch beastie is piled on my lap. The things we do for love of fiber.

small saga, part 2.

I thought that once the layout was completed, sewing all the blocks and sashing together would go quickly. Much more quickly than making the blocks.

Was I ever wrong. It seemed to take forever! My living room was impassible for days. First all the seams going one way, then long seams the other way... at one point I tried to figure it out: ten blocks wide, with sashing, means 20 seams in each row, and there are eleven rows, so that's 220 little seams, and then eleven rows with sashing between means... whatever. I ran out of bobbin thread at least four times. I ran out of entire spools of thread. A big quilt is, well, much bigger than I realized. But finally, with perseverance, it was done.

Not so bad. It has a title: I am calling it my "State of the Studio" quilt for 2007. Some piecing is pretty good

Yep, I can live with that. Other places, not so good

What happened there? I ripped it out and fixed it.

Next step, sandwiching with backing and batting. (In real time there was an interval here while I waited for ordered backing fabric and cotton batting to arrive.) I rolled up the living room carpet and spread out the backing. Masking tape helps when there is only one pair of hands.

On top of that, the batting, then the patchwork.

I spent an entire morning--4-5 hours--scooting around on the floor basting the thing together. Talk about backache. Also a critical reason why crafters need clean feet. As you can see in the picture, there was an issue with one corner, since my living room floor was not big enough to contain the whole thing! Once almost all of it was together I rolled up part of it and finished that corner. Here is a bit of it, you can see the backing with the patchwork. It's not the most perfect choice, but this is a learning quilt. It wasn't in fact my first choice, but on second thought this may be better, because the other fabric I had in mind was darker and less busy and I'm going to quilt with natural colored thread. I hope the uneven stitches will show less on this backing.

There it sits. Still on my living room floor. (The rug is back in place now). Next step, quilting. At some point in my life I had a quilting hoop. Can't find it anywhere. Not in the linen closet, not in the studio, not in the basement storage area. Hmm. So I did a web search and it turns out there are are plenty of people out there that quilt with no hoop or frame. Ok, I thought, I can do that. It's just running stitch, right? Wrong. I've done a few blocks around the edges, but when I tried more than about 8 inches in from the outside, I couldn't figure how to keep tension on the sandwich and make small stitches and not prick my fingers raw. Yes, I know you are supposed to start quilting from the middle. It was a test. I think a hoop would be good for me, so I am now in another waiting period while joe basic quilting hoop is shipped to me. Meanwhile, I have been looking everywhere for information on how to hand quilt. It seems there is some kind of trick to it--I can remember trying to quilt before, and getting so absolutely frustrated. It's kind of funny in a way--so many fiber things I seem to pick up pretty well, but the quilting stitch! On one of my searches I found this tv clip. It is amazing--first of all, because it is so midwest. The accents, the clothes, everything. Did I used to talk like that? Do I still? I am not sure whether to laugh, cry, or just shake my head. Watch that woman quilt. It's at about minute 13 of the video. It's magic, I swear. Unbelieveable. I want to quilt like that.

I'll let you know what happens when I get a hoop. Meanwhile, on with hexagons. Oh, and a funny thing: one of the many quilting books I've been getting out of the library has this piece of advice:

Handquilting can be a very warm activity especially if your quilt is large. You will find it very uncomfortable to quilt during the summer months. Never start quilting your first bed-sized quilt in June.

Shrug.

small saga, part 1.

I will admit that I can be, at times, a little... obsessive? Especially if there is something that I am trying to avoid dealing with or a significant source of stress in my life. One way to look at this is that by procrastinating, I get a lot done (just not the things I "should" be doing). First, an update on the hexagons. I went shopping and got some green fabrics for the paths between flowers and cut a bunch of hexagons

Rotary cutters rock. Here is a close up of the prints

I adore the one in the front with little yellow and white flowers. Should have bought yards and yards of it. My plan is to mix up the path hexes and create a kind of mosaic around the rosettes. I won't get there for a while; I need about 80 flowers and so far I think I have completed 18. It is definitely a slow, savoring project.

But I've been stressed. And I've been checking quilt books out of the library. Rotary cutting quilt books. One of those books had a tip that went something like: before you cut into a new piece of fabric, cut a 2.5 inch strip off one end and set it aside. Pretty soon you'll have a stash of strips to make... and went on to describe some of the many things you can do with strips. Hey, I thought. I have a room full of cuts of fabric. What if I brought out some of the yardage I've been collecting over the past few years and took just a little bit off the end of each one? I always buy extra, so it wouldn't affect any planned project. Fun way to start a collection of fabric strips, while the rotary cutting mat is out.

I won't tell you how long the rotary cutter and mat stayed out. (two weeks? three?) Unfortunately, I did not take a picture of the pile of strips I cut. Impressive. At one point I think there were over 90. Yes, that's a lot of cutting and a lot of fabric. I did cut two strips from most pieces, but it's still a lot of fabric. Using basic strip piecing instructions, over the next few weeks I transformed strips of fabric into stacks of nine-patch squares like this

and this

and this

Each block has a pair which has the same fabrics, but with positions reversed. Every fabric is in more than one pair of blocks, but there are no pairs with exactly the same combination of prints. Kind of a nice mathematical puzzle, if you have time to figure it out. I ended up with 111 blocks--should have been 112, but one set I cut to the wrong size at some stage so it turned out wrong. That's ok, because 112 is an awkward number to set together. The blocks are 6 inches square, and 10x11 seemed it might make a good size. Then came the fun of laying it out on the floor...

The little floating squares between each block were leftovers from the cutting, I decided to use them to expand the quilt a little bit and add sashing.

Staying true to the scrap nature of this quilt, I used a length of muslin from my bolt for the sashing. (Must replace the bolt soon. Might be only 5 yards or so left. Bolts of muslin are very handy to have around). The sashing used up a lot of yardage--almost 3 yards! Good thing to know.

current obsession

A wonderful, or terrible, thing about the internet is that if you are ever under the illusion that you are doing something original, a quick Googling will disabuse you of that notion. Quilting has been much on my mind lately. I'm trying to avoid buying new materials, so I dug out an old tin in my sewing room which holds hundreds of hexagons I cut out ten or fifteen years ago. They were cut from scraps left over from sewing clothes, and many of the prints belong to things I wore in high school and college. I thought of the hexagons in part because I am lusting after 1930's reproduction prints, all mixed up, as for instance in this assortment. Yum. Originally I was sewing together the pieces with seams, all by hand. Then I learned about English Paper Piecing. The most complete information I've found so far is here and here. There's also a flickr group all about English Paper Piecing. Many late nights with paper and scissors led to a pile of little paper hexagons, which got all wrapped up in colorful bits of cloth, and stitched together into rosettes. Eventually all those rosettes--there will be a lot more of them--will be paved together with other hexagons inbetween, and make a large piece of patchwork for the front of a quilt. It is very slow work, and I know enough about myself to know that it's very likely I'll get a dozen flowers done and put it aside for another decade. Still, right now, I am obsessed. I play with different combinations of colors for the flowers. I dream about what kind of green fabric will go between the rosettes. I rush home at night and stay up too late to baste just one more set, or rummage through the scrap bin for a different color, or finish whipstitching another flower.

The quilting business is really all my mother's fault. (In the best possible way. Thanks Mom!) You see, we collaborated on a quilt for my new niece. (Her name is Lily! She is the most beautiful niece in the world!) I cut a bunch of strips

and sewed them together in various configurations

and made blocks

which turned into a quilt top

Then I flew to Mom's house over Easter weekend and we went to the quilt store to get backing. She loved all the bright childlike prints--I do too--and I had a hard time convincing her that some of them just didn't "go" with the quilt top. "If you want to use those we'll have to make another one," I said, meaning it as a joke. Should have known better. She picked out a bundle of color and we made this

That was a weekend with a lot of sewing! But very worth it. Both quilts are now with the new baby. And I am left with a burning desire to make more. I don't want another hobby, I can't afford it, really I don't want to get into quilting...

but wouldn't it be cool to use English Paper Piecing to make a tesselation like one of these?

oh, and...

thank you to everybody who inquired, and my gratitude pours out to the universe, because

I did find the thimble.

phew.

I'll take half a dozen, please

My new house apron. I love it. I'll have one for each day of the week. With age, I seem to be getting sloppier and I finally (finally!) have realized the usefulness of an apron to protect clothing from cooking spills. I saw this pattern in a catalog months ago and though I almost never buy clothing patterns, it stuck in my mind. Isn't it cute? Here's the back

There are no ties, the backs cross each other to make a sort of pinafore. It reminds me in ways of a Beatrix Potter drawing. It is fully reversible

and I made the whole thing from fabrics I had on hand. Because I didn't have quite the right shapes of stash fabric I had to piece the flowered side in the back but I don't think it is all that noticeable.

Besides it gave me a feeling of thrift and good stewardship to figure out how to use the fabric anyway, even though the pattern as given didn't fit. I love the play of stripes and flowers, and it is a comfortable cover-all kind of garment that could be used for cooking, cleaning, painting, spinning (catch all that fluff), or harvesting things in the garden. It's not really a beginner pattern because of the scallops, but they could easily be rounded into a continuous curve. I'd like one in pink polka dots with a contrasting print. Also one in duck with binding for heavy duty chores, and one in red corduroy for winter. I could even see wearing an apron like this over an eyelet petticoat out into the Real World. The shape would also be lovely embellished with lace insertion or eyelet embroidery--if you were a fine needleperson, you could create the whole thing in broderie anglaise on linen. And right there, that's already half a dozen.

last hurrah

The immunizations turned out to be effective. I got waves of fever alternating with chills, aches all over my body, and a stuffed head. I took a hot bath, buried myself beneath the covers, and hibernated. For two days I barely went out of the house. While in, meditating sadly on the coming start of classes and my vanishing free time, I pulled out pieces I had cut out at the beginning of the summer. One was this turquoise twill skirt.

Among the pieces were the small patch pockets--I guess I was planning to attach them, but I couldn't remember where. Prompted by a glimpse of a cheerful print in one of my piles, and various retro-ish images such as this page from an old sewing pamphlet

I decided to dress the skirt up with the contrasting bands. It is so cheery, I love it! The print bands give it that little extra that make it truly my skirt, and not merely another utility garment. Utility garments were made too

Very plain, useful tan cotton twill skirt, with small watch pocket at upper right front. (For office keys). Also completed, an A-line red knit skirt, elastic waist. So plain a picture doesn't even make sense. Two days, three complete skirts ready to wear--not bad. Yet there are still so many more things I want to do...

misplaced, I hope

Everyone I know in the northern hemisphere has too much stuff. Things. Accumulation of objects. When I travel for months with one suitcase I realize how relative "need" is. I forget about most of the things I have at home and am pleasantly surprised to re-discover wealth each time I return. Even though I recognize that most of my stuff is irrelevant, there are a few objects I treasure.

I just lost one of them.

I hope, desperately, that I simply don't know where it is. That it is hiding in some nook or cranny and will resurface in the next few days or weeks and reassure me. That it will once more become a part of my habit of stitching. It is my favorite thimble. Yes, a thimble--how quaint, you say, how odd, I didn't know anyone used thimbles anymore! It suits me for handsewing. My thimble is silver, real silver, and has a key design engraved around the bottom of it. It has a tiny "9" on a plain band--I think this might be a sizing, but I always thought it was because I got it when I was 9 years old. As a present, from one of my most beloved people on earth. If you can imagine a combination of favorite aunt, inspired mentor, and patient listener you'll have a hint of the kind of person I am talking about. She's a quilter and a reader and oh so very smart, and she took me to England the summer I was 9. Just the two of us, in a small blue car visiting the Great Houses of the British Isles. It was incredible. I don't remember if the thimble was connected with our trip or not, but I recall being awed by it when I opened it and keeping it safely in my sewing box ever since. The thimble helped me sew doll clothes and then my clothes, everything from my prom dress to my first handwoven coat. I've pieced scraps with it for quilt blocks (still unfinished) and hemmed innumerable pants and skirts. Truth to tell, it is now a little small for my finger. But I don't want another. It fits me better than any other thimble could, and after 25 + years, we were getting quite comfortable together.

Perhaps you can understand why I find its absence so upsetting.

Just goes to show you what kind of troubles can be had when you insist on cleaning up too much. For years my sewing basket has looked like this:

It's a plain black plastic tin with a tight fitting lid. The lid is rarely closed, because of all the other stuff spilling out of it. Periodically I go through and clean up all the odd lengths of thread and stick all the pins back in the pincushion and discard the old scraps of fabric. You can see one of the little faces of the pincushion, and the center spilling sawdust. Earlier this summer I found a lovely round box at IKEA and decided I would remake my sewing accessories and discard the old sewing box. Especially that sagging pincushion. I made a new one from scraps of cotton.

This is a photo I took months ago, and there is my sweet darling thimble... my precious thimble... four days ago I tossed stuff out of the old sewing basket. Scraps, thread too short to use, old empty spools, broken buttons. I threw it all away and put my brand new pincushion in my new clean wooden box. It wasn't until the next day that I realized that nowhere in that fit of organization had I come across my thimble. It wasn't in the old box, it wasn't in the new box.

So far I've looked on the floor, in the drawers, in the sewing machine, in piles of fabric, in plastic folders with embroidery projects, in miscellaneous boxes on the sewing table... my studio is a haven of hiding places, I haven't convinced myself that it's not there, but it's not near the top of things and that worries me. I am so worried that this morning I went through a week's worth of trash. I actually got out my kitchen garbage bags and put on rubber gloves and went through all the rotting fruit rinds and corn cobs piece by piece to make sure it hadn't gotten thrown away by mistake. I didn't find it and I hope to God it isn't there because the trash is to be picked up tomorrow. I wondered if I might have taken it on my recent voyage, and left it somewhere, because I was doing embroidery and sewing... but I specifically remember deciding not to take it, precisely because it is too precious to lose.

Please, thimble, please come back... I miss you... I am looking forward to our next 25 years...

thanks, we've got a name!

Thanks to everyone who suggested names for the new small girl. Now I have a lot to choose from for my next doll naming need! After a few days of vacillating, I decided to go with Esther Hepzibah. (Yes, I know it's also spelt Hephzibah. But not in this case). Called Hepzi for short. Finally she has a few underthings. I embroidered her initials on her chemise. The chemise and pantalets are trimmed with featherstitching and handmade needle lace.

The pantalets also have three pintucks at the bottom.

Altogether I think she's getting happier now that she has some clothes. There is a matching petticoat, though it is not shown in the picture.

The needlelace was very easy--in fact it's just a series of spaced buttonhole stitches. For this set I did two rows of buttonhole stitches but you could easily do more. As I was working my way along the petticoat hem (all 15" of it) I was thinking "yes, and you could put more than one stitch in the stitch below to make it denser, or skip stitches to make a bigger hole, and build up patterns that way..." I'm sure it's been done. Is there an official name for this way of creating thread lace directly on the hem of fabric? Does anyone know of references for this technique? The only downside is what to do when you run out of thread. It seems like something that someone must have invented a tool for at some point in time, but I can't quite imagine what kind of tool but a needle would work.

another small character

This morning I attached the arms and legs to this girl. She is made from the 9" Hannah pattern from Gail Wilson. The original dolls have painted heads, hands and feet. My painting skills are abysmal, so I decided I'd try some embroidery instead. The face and hairline are copied from the original, but simplified. The hair is embroidered in fine merino knitting yarn, in thick chain stitch all over. This doll has a different shape than I've ever seen before--in particular, the arm attachment is new to me. The shoulders form points and the open end of the arm is pushed up over the shoulder and sewn on all around. Above the elbows and knees the limbs are stuffed very softly. This helps her to sit well.

This is a great pattern, very clear and detailed. She turned out exactly 9" tall! Although I think her shape is a bit odd, I've come to like it. I especially like how round her head is, not at all like a pancake. Clearly I need to improve my face embroidery. To start with, next time I'll use a single strand of floss instead of double. But she is meant to be somewhat "primitive" and folksy, so I can live with it. Once I get her dressed in calico, I expect she will be right at home. I want to find some kind of bizarre early 19th century name for her. Something biblical...Mehitabel? Zebulah? (wilbs, any suggestions?)